US: After a year-long COVID closure, WA state's Tulip Town welcomes guests onto the Farm, into the fields

Tulip Town reopens on April 1, 2021, and the organization is delighted. Since 1984, hundreds of thousands of people from across the world visit Skagit Valley to tour the tulip fields. However last year, the four-week long Tulip Festival at Tulip Town was shut down due to COVID-19. The impact was fierce as 95% of their revenue is historically derived from guests paying to come out and see the farm. They quickly adapted to the situation and developed a new business model that exported the experience of tulips virtually.

Spinach Bus Ventures team

Becoming an experience provider
“Last year took us to the limits of our business acumen and resilience’, says Tulip Town co-owner, farmer, and CEO, Andrew Miller. They had to do something and came up with the idea to create a new business model that exported the experience of tulips virtually. “In doing so, we were able to create new opportunities for people to enjoy Tulip Town virtually that we would not have considered if we weren't forced to do so.”

While they were able to create new connections to our farm virtually, they also established new customers that found our plucky attitude inspiring. “We embraced the opportunity to be reborn as a truly innovative and responsive experience provider.” 

2021 preparations
This year, they planted approximately 5 million bulbs (down by about 2 million based on their field's size as they went from a 7-acre field last year to a 5-acre field this year. But that’s not the biggest change. They designed their field for a more immersive and yet more spread-out experience for their visitors. “Instead of a five-acre block of color, we planted the field in four main parts with wide thoroughfares running throughout the tulips. We also left gaps in the rows where people can get close to the flowers for pictures. On top of that, we expanded our hours to cover nearly 14 hours of daylight. We added a photography program for photographers seeking access for the "golden hours" and an "Experience Pass" for people that would like to go out with our picking crew and pick their own bouquet.”

They are especially excited about the app they developed, "Tulip Town 360," so anyone anywhere in the world can enjoy our fields. “Guests can download on our app (Apple and Google) as well as our twice-daily guided field tours on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube.”

Expectations for 2021 edition
The farm has historically seen between 100-150,000 people a year. This year, however, they anticipate a lower than "usual" attendance as the Canadian border remains closed to "non-essential" travel. Approximately half of the visitors to the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival are our neighbors to the north. 

Future
Although they expect a lower number of guests this year, they are extremely proud of what they have achieved. “2020 was brutally difficult for us, but we found new strength and innovation in unexpected ways, and our farm and the experience our guests can expect is better because of what we learned and how we responded. The future of Tulip Town has never been brighter; it just took a lot of polishing really fast last year to get the shine we're looking forward to sharing with our guests and customers.”

Spinach Bus Ventures
SBV was founded by five friends from high school in Washington State’s Skagit Valley, a farming community north of Seattle, who returned home to their roots three decades after graduation to help grow the community that grew them. The team’s first investment was a tulip farm purchased from the previous owners of 36 years. March 2020 was to be their inaugural season; the same month, Washington Governor Jay Inslee issued a stay-at-home order due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Eager to visit Tulip Town in-person or remotely? Click here for more information and to register.